Serine proteases make up the largest and most extensively studied group of proteolytic enzymes. Their critical roles in physiological processes extend over such diverse areas as blood coagulation, fibrinolysis, complement activation, reproduction, digestion, and the release of physiologically active peptides. Many of these vital processes begin with cleavage of a single peptide bond or a few peptide bonds in precursor protein or peptides. Sequential limited proteolytic reactions or cascades are involved in blood clotting, fibrinolysis, and complement activation. The biological signals to start these cascades can be controlled and amplified as well. Similarly, controlled proteolysis can shut down or inactivate proteins or peptides through single bond cleavages.
Kallikreins are a subgroup of serine proteases. In humans, plasma kallikrein (KLKB1) has no known homologue, while tissue kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) encode a family of fifteen closely related serine proteases. Plasma kallikrein participates in a number of pathways relating to the intrinsic pathway of coagulation, inflammation, and the complement system.
Coagulation is the process by which blood forms clots, for example to stop bleeding. The physiology of coagulation is somewhat complex insofar as it includes two separate initial pathways, which converge into a final common pathway leading to clot formation. In the final common pathway, prothrombin is converted into thrombin, which in turn converts fibrinogen into fibrin, the latter being the principal building block of cross-linked fibrin polymers which form a hemostatic plug. Of the two initial pathways upstream of the final common pathway, one is known as the contact activation or intrinsic pathway, and the other is known as the tissue factor or extrinsic pathway.
The intrinsic pathway begins with formation of a primary complex on collagen by high-molecular-weight kininogen (HMWK), prekallikrein, and FXII (Factor XII; Hageman factor). Prekallikrein is converted to kallikrein, and FXII is activated to become FXIIa. FXIIa then converts Factor XI (FXI) into FXIa, and FXIa in turn activates Factor IX (FIX), which with its co-factor FVIIIa form the “tenase” complex, which activates Factor X (FX) to FXa. It is FXa which is responsible for the conversion of prothrombin into thrombin within the final common pathway.
Prekallikrein, the inactive precursor of plasma kallikrein, is synthesized in the liver and circulates in the plasma bound to HMWK or as a free zymogen. Prekallikrein is cleaved by activated factor XII (FXIIa) to release activated plasma kallikrein (PK). Activated plasma kallikrein displays endopeptidase activity towards peptide bonds after arginine (preferred) and lysine. PK then generates additional FXIIa in a feedback loop which in turn activates factor XI (FXI) to FXIa to connect to the common pathway. Although the initial activation of the intrinsic pathway is through a small amount of FXIIa activating a small amount of PK, it is the subsequent feedback activation of FXII by PK that controls the extent of activation of the intrinsic pathway and hence downstream coagulation. Hathaway, W. E., et al. (1965) Blood 26:521-32.
Activated plasma kallikrein also cleaves HMWK to release the potent vasodilator peptide bradykinin. It is also able to cleave a number of inactive precursor proteins to generate active products, such as plasmin (from plasminogen) and urokinase (from prourokinase). Plasmin, a regulator of coagulation, proteolytically cleaves fibrin into fibrin degradation products that inhibit excessive fibrin formation.
Patients who have suffered acute myocardial infarction (MI) show clinical evidence of being in a hypercoagulable (clot-promoting) state. This hypercoagulability is paradoxically additionally aggravated in those receiving fibrinolytic therapy. Increased generation of thrombin, as measured by thrombin-antithrombin III (TAT) levels, is observed in patients undergoing such treatment compared to the already high levels observed in those receiving heparin alone. Hoffmeister, H. M. et al. (1998) Circulation 98:2527-33. The increase in thrombin has been proposed to result from plasmin-mediated activation of the intrinsic pathway by direct activation of FXII by plasmin.
Not only does the fibrinolysis-induced hypercoagulability lead to increased rates of reocclusion, but it is also probably responsible, at least in part, for failure to achieve complete fibrinolysis of the clot (thrombus), a major shortcoming of fibrinolytic therapy (Keeley, E. C. et al. (2003) Lancet 361: 13-20). Another problem in fibrinolytic therapy is the accompanying elevated risk of intracranial hemorrhage. Menon, V. et al. (2004) Chest 126:549S-575S; Fibrinolytic Therapy Trialists' Collaborative Group (1994) Lancet 343:311-22. Hence, an adjunctive anti-coagulant therapy that does not increase the risk of bleeding, but inhibits the formation of new thrombin, would be greatly beneficial.
Therefore, a need exists to develop inhibitors of PK that can tip the balance of fibrinolysis/thrombosis at the occluding thrombus toward dissolution, thereby promoting reperfusion and also attenuating the hypercoagulable state, thus preventing thrombus from reforming and reoccluding the vessel.